Love Finds Andy Hardy

Rating:
Summary: Best of the Hardy series!
Review: The 4th movie from the Andy Hardy series, "Love Finds Andy Hardy" is probably the best of the entire series. It's interesting to see Judy Garland before she made "Oz." This was her next to last picture before filming "The Wizard of Oz." Her voice is remarkable. By the way, while this movie was in production, Judy was in a car accident that produced 3 broken ribs, a sprained back, and a punctured lung. Can you imagine singing and acting with that?

Rating:
Summary: Best of the Hardy series!
Review: The 4th movie from the Andy Hardy series, "Love Finds Andy Hardy" is probably the best of the entire series. It's interesting to see Judy Garland before she made "Oz." This was her next to last picture before filming "The Wizard of Oz." Her voice is remarkable. By the way, while this movie was in production, Judy was in a car accident that produced 3 broken ribs, a sprained back, and a punctured lung. Can you imagine singing and acting with that?

Rating:
Summary: An adorable pre-Oz Judy Garland saves the day for Andy Hardy
Review: The Andy Hardy series of the 1930s and 1940s will forever stand as the epitome of wholesome, thoroughly enjoyable family entertainment, and these wonderful films did much to make Mickey Rooney a superstar and guaranteed money-making actor. Love Finds Andy Hardy, the fourth of sixteen films about Judge Hardy's family, is regarded by many fans to be the best of the bunch (although I prefer Andy Hardy Meets Debutante), due in no small part to the introduction of Betsy Booth, who comes from New York to Carvel to spend Christmas with her grandparents. Judy Garland, a year before achieving superstardom in The Wizard of Oz, is simply adorable as Betsy, a cute and oh-so-talented young lady whom Andy dotes on as a child; even though her huge crush on Andy never quite meets with reciprocating feelings on his part, she selflessly saves the day time and again for the antic-prone Andy. You have to be really smart to get into the kind of trouble Andy gets in, she says, and boy oh boy is this the truth.

You can't help but love Andy-Mickey Rooney is unashamedly goofy, unbelievably energetic yet quick to wallow in the messes of his own making; he literally was the all-American boy of the post-Depression era. In this film, Andy wants a car, and he wants it before December 24 so that he can drive his sweetie Polly (Ann Rutherford) to the big dance. Without telling his father (played by Lewis Stone), he gives the local car dealer twelve of the twenty dollars he needs for his chosen car, promising to pay the remaining eight dollars by the 24th. Herein lies the start of his problems. Andy is crushed when he learns Polly will be out of town for three weeks, yet opportunity seems to knock politely on his door when his friend Beezy promises to pay him eight dollars plus expenses to date up his own girl while he is away. Thus does Andy begin a courtship of Cynthia Potter (Lana Turner). Betsy Booth arrives next door with a preexisting crush on Andy, one which should be easily obvious even to the reckless-minded fellow, yet he never fails to describe her as a child. Frankly, Andy is something of a fool; there has never been a cuter young lady on this earth than Judy Garland during her teen years; if Betsy Booth would have grinned and done that little nose wrinkle thing for me, I would have fallen at her feet. Anyway, and predictably, Andy's plans all go astray. At one point, he is looking at the prospect of two dates to the dance and no car at all. With a friend like Betsy Booth, however, he need not have worried about his precious social reputation being ruined.

Judy Garland absolutely steals the show here. As I have said, she is not only cute as a button but beautiful in every way. Betsy just wants to be seen as a young lady rather than a child, and her feelings on this issue are expressed perfectly in the song In Between (crafted by her musical mentor Roger Edens). She does get to be grown up and glamorous for one night, though, marking the occasion with unforgettable performances of the songs It Never Rains But What It Pours and Meet the Beat of My Heart (half of it, anyway, as the other half plus an additional number, Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, were cut from the final print).

Judy Garland would return in two later Andy Hardy films, but more importantly, Love Finds Andy Hardy served as the true beginning of the Garland-Rooney phenomenon that wowed audiences over the course of the next few years. The two first appeared in the 1937 film Thoroughbreds Don't Cry, and the obvious chemistry between the two set the stage for her entry into the Andy Hardy films. Garland was never more loveable than she was in the role of Betsy Booth, and films such as Love Finds Andy Hardy have a very special place in the heart of this Judy Garland fanatic.

Rating:
Summary: Love Finds Andy Hardy
Review: This is one of the best Andy Hardy movies. It's filled with fun and I really enjoyed it! This is a must see Andy Hardy movie!

Rating:
Summary: Love Finds Andy Hardy
Review: This is one of the cutest Andy Hardy movies there is! It is one of my favorites and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Rating:
Summary: False advertising!
Review: This movie deserves 5 stars but the false advertising that it is in color was why I purchased it. I already owned it in B/W on VHS. The Amazon.com listing for this movie says FORMAT-COLOR. The only thing in color is the special feature with John Fricke and Ann Rutherford. Beware of Blandings Builds His Dream House and My Favrite Wife and Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer as when they are released on DVD, they are also being marketed as color. Check before buying. Otherwise Love Finds is a great movie with a special Christmas trailer of the Hardy Family.